Turkey increased its imports of billets from Ukraine by 65% y/y in January-February

Total imports by Turkish steelmakers increased by 52.4% y/y, mainly from Malaysia

In January-February 2025, Turkish metallurgical enterprises increased imports of steel billets from Ukraine by 64.7% compared to the same period in 2024, up to 50.51 thousand tons. This is reported by SteelOrbis with reference to data from the Turkish Statistical Institute.

In February, the volume of supplies of Ukrainian semi-finished products to the Turkish market amounted to 29.91 thousand tons compared to 9.67 thousand tons in February 2024.

In January-February, total imports of the relevant products by Turkish steelmakers increased by 52.4% y/y – to 628.09 thousand tons. The value of supplies increased by 36.6% y/y – to $325.4 million. The key suppliers are Malaysia – 239.31 thsd tonnes (+6.2 times y/y), Russia – 116.38 thsd tonnes (+16.4% y/y), China – 102.37 thsd tonnes (29 thsd tonnes in January-February 2024).

In March, Turkey reduced the imports of semi-finished products by 36.9% compared to the previous month, and increased by 9.9% y/y – to $243.11 thsd tonnes. Import costs fell by 34.6% m/m and 0.8% y/y – to $128.71 mln.

In 2024, Turkey imported 204.17 kt of steel billets from Ukraine, compared to 67.13 kt in 2023. Total supplies increased by 23.8% y/y – to 3.81 million tons. The key suppliers are Malaysia (802.08 thousand tons), the Russian Federation (702.24 thousand tons), China (546.79 thousand tons), and Indonesia (446.59 thousand tons).

Last year, steel production in the country increased by 9.4% compared to 2023 – to 36.89 million tons, and pig iron production increased by 17.2% y/y – to 10.19 million tons. The average monthly steel production amounted to 3.07 million tons compared to 2.81 million tons in 2023, and pig iron production amounted to 848.8 thousand tons and 724.2 thousand tons, respectively.